Honestly, my experience has been exactly the opposite.

No one in my immediate family is vaccinated, nor are most of my friends and neighbors. Nearly everyone I know has had either Delta or Omicron (a handful of friends got Alpha in 2020). Just one person we know has had severe symptoms (severe, as in the equivalent of what they described as a bad flu), but she didn't need to be hospitalized; this person contracted Alpha). Everyone else has I know has had mild symptoms, although a few with Omicron had the symptoms you describe.

It's extremely difficult to reconcile my experience over the past two years with what I'm reading and hearing in the media. My growing suspicion is that whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, COVID manifests pretty much the same way in 95% of healthy people. For the elderly and those with underlying conditions, I'm quite sure this isn't the case.

I agree that locking down forever isn't the solution. It's beyond traumatizing and harmful on many levels, especially for children. I think it's time to acknowledge that the pandemic is over and the endemic has arrived. That means vaccinating those most at risk and allowing healthy individuals to continue to move society towards herd immunity.